Zhang (surname)

Zhang ([ʈʂáŋ] (listen)) is third most common surname in China and one of the most common surnames in the world.[2][3] Zhang is the pinyin romanization of the very common Chinese surname written 张 in simplified characters and 張 in traditional characters. It is spoken in the first tone: Zhāng. It is a surname that exists in many languages and cultures, corresponding to the surname 'Archer' in English for example.[4] Chang is the Wade-Giles romanization; Cheung is commonly used in Hong Kong as romanization.

For the less common surname 章, see Zhang (surname 章).
Zhang
Zhang king surname in regular script
RomanizationChang, Zhang (Mandarin)
Cheung (Hong Kong)
Cheong (Macao, Malaysia)
Tsan, Tsaon (Shanghai)
Teoh, Teo (Hokkien, Teochew)
Tew (Teochew)
Chong, Cheong (Hakka)
Cheong (Gan)
Jang, Chang (장) (Korean)
Trương, Trang (Vietnamese)
PronunciationIPA: /tʂɑŋ˥/ (Mandarin IPA)
Zhāng (Pinyin)
Zoeng1(Cantonese Jyutping)
Tiuⁿ (Pe̍h-ōe-jī)
Language(s)Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese
Origin
Language(s)Old Chinese
DerivationNie
Meaningdrawing a bow,[1]
archer, bowyer, a measure word

It is also the pinyin romanization of the less-common surnames 章 (Zhāng), which is the 40th name on the Hundred Family Surnames poem. There is the even-less common 仉 (Zhǎng).

張 was listed 24th in the famous Song-era Hundred Family Surnames, contained in the verse 何呂施張 (He Lü Shi Zhang).

Today, it is one of the most common surnames in the world at over 100 million people worldwide.[5]

張 was listed by the People's Republic of China's National Citizen ID Information System as the third-most-common surname in mainland China in April 2007, with 87.50 million bearers.[6][7]

A commonly cited but erroneous factoid in the 1990 Guinness Book of Records listed it as the world's most common surname,[8] but no comprehensive information from China was available at the time and more recent editions have not repeated the claim.

Romanization

張 (张) is also sometimes romanized as:

張 is the Hanja of the Korean surname romanized Jang and Chang (장).

張 remains the Kanji for the Japanese surname romanized Chō.

張 is also the Chữ Nôm form of the Vietnamese surname Trương.

Distribution

As mentioned above, 張 is the third-most-common surname in mainland China, making up 6.83% of the population of the People's Republic of China.[9] In 2019 it was the most common surname in exactly one provincial-level division, Shanghai municipality.[10] In Taiwan, 張 is the fourth-most-common surname, making up 5.26% of the population of the Republic of China.[11] In 2019 it was again the third most common surname in Mainland China.[12]

Zhang Wei (张伟) has been the most common family name and given name combination in China for many years.

Among the Chinese diaspora, the name remains common but takes on various romanizations. "Chong" is the 19th-most-common surname among Chinese Singaporeans;[13] "Chang" is the 6th-most-common surname among Chinese Americans; and "Zhang" was the 7th-most-common particularly Chinese surname found in a 2010 survey of Ontario's Registered Persons Database of Canadian health card recipients.[14]

History

Characters

張 combines the Chinese characters 弓 (gōng, "bow") and 長 (simp. 长, cháng, "long" or "wide"). It originally meant "to open up" or "to spread" as an arching bow, but as a common noun in modern use it is a measure word for flat objects such as paper and cloth, like the English "sheet of".

Families

The traditional origin of the surname 張 (Old Chinese: *C. traŋ[1]) is rooted in Chinese legend. The fifth son of the Yellow Emperor, Qing Yangshi (青陽氏/青阳氏, Qīng Yángshì), had a son Hui (揮/挥, Huī) who was inspired by the Heavenly Bow constellation (天弓星, Tiān Gōng Xīng) to invent the bow and arrow. Hui was then promoted to "First Bow" (弓正, Gōng Zhèng) and bestowed the surname 張, which – when broken into its constituent radicals – means "widening bow" or "archer". Its Middle Chinese pronunciation has been reconstructed as Trjang.[1]

Other origins
  • for some families, it is traced back to Xie Zhang (解張), whose style name was Zhang Hou (張侯, lit “Marquis Zhang”) a noble in Jin during the Spring and Autumn period.
  • from the family of Zhang Liao (張遼), an official in Cao Wei during Three Kingdoms period. Zhāng Liao’s family had changed from Nie to Zhang to avoid association with his disgraced ancestor Nie Yi (聶壹).[15]
  • the surname is also traced back to Long Youna, chief of an minority ethnic groups during the Three Kingdoms period, who was given the Chinese surname Zhang (張) by Zhuge Liang, the prime minister of Shu.

List of persons with the surname

張 / 张
Note: people generally romanized as "Chang" are listed in the "Chang" article; people generally romanized as "Cheung" are listed in the "Cheung" article; people generally romanized as "Teo" or "Teoh" are listed in the "Teoh" article; people generally romanized as "Jang" are listed in the "Jang" article; and people with the family name "Trương" are listed in the "Trương" article

. Those whose original surnames at birth are Zhang are also included on this list.

Historical figures
  • Zhang Yi (died 309 BC), strategist in the Warring States period
  • Zhang Han (died 205 BC), military general of the Qin dynasty
  • Zhang Tang (died 116 BC), official of the Western Han dynasty under Emperor Wu
  • Zhang Anshi, son of Zhang Tang, official of the Han dynasty
  • Zhang Liang (died 186 BC), adviser to Liu Bang (founding emperor of the Han dynasty).
  • Zhang Jue, leader of the Yellow Turban Rebellion in the Eastern Han dynasty
  • Zhang Rang (died 189), leader of the eunuch faction during the reign of Emperor Ling in the Eastern Han dynasty
  • Zhang Fei (died 221), general of the Shu Han state in the Three Kingdoms period
  • Zhang Hong (153–212), official serving under the warlord Sun Quan in the Eastern Han dynasty
  • Zhang Yi (died 230), general of the Shu Han state in the Three Kingdoms period
  • Empress Zhang (died 237), Empress of the Shu Han state in the Three Kingdoms period
  • Zhang He (died 231), general of the Cao Wei state in the Three Kingdoms period
  • Zhang Liao (169–222), general of the Cao Wei state in the Three Kingdoms period
  • Zhang Zhao (156–238), official of the Eastern Wu state in the Three Kingdoms period
  • Zhang Chunhua (died 247), wife of the Cao Wei general Sima Yi in the Three Kingdoms period
  • Zhang Ni (died 254), general of the Shu Han state in the Three Kingdoms period
  • Zhang Yi (died 264), general of the Shu Han state in the Three Kingdoms period
  • Zhang Bu (died 264), general of the Eastern Wu state in the Three Kingdoms period
  • Zhang Hua (232–300), Western Jin dynasty official and poet.
  • Zhang Mao (277–324), founder of Former Liang in the Sixteen Kingdoms period
  • Zhang Ci (died 386), general and eunuch of the Former Qin state in the Sixteen Kingdoms period
  • Zhang Liang, general and official of the Tang dynasty
  • Zhang Yue (663–730), Tang dynasty chancellor and poet
  • Zhang Jiuling (673–740), Tang dynasty chancellor and poet
  • Zhang Jun (1086–1154), general of the Song dynasty
  • Zhang Jiucheng (1092–1159), court official
  • Zhang Hongfan (1238–1280), Yuan dynasty general
  • Zhang Juzheng (1525–1582), Ming dynasty statesman
  • Zhang Huangyan (1620-1664), Nan Ming dynasty military officer

Science and mathematics

Government and military

Entertainment
  • Baby Zhang (Zhang Hanyun) (born 1989), Chinese singer and runner-up of the singing contest Super Girl
  • Chelsea Zhang (born 1996), American actress
  • Zhang Hanyu (born 1964), Chinese actor
  • Zhang Haochen (born 1990), Chinese pianist
  • Jason Zhang (born 1982), Chinese pop singer
  • Jane Zhang (born 1984), Chinese pop singer
  • Zhang Liyin (born 1989), Chinese singer active in China and South Korea
  • Zhang Xianzi (born 1986), Chinese singer
  • Zhang Yang (born 1967), Chinese film director, screenwriter, and occasional actor.
  • Zhang Yimou (born 1951), Chinese film director and former cinematographer
  • Zhang Guoli (born 1955), Chinese actor and film director
  • Zhang Zhehan (born 1991), Chinese actor
  • Zhang Yixing (born 1991), (known as Lay) Chinese singer, dancer and songwriter, member of the South Korean group EXO
  • Zhang Yuan (born 1963), Chinese film director
  • Zhang Zhenhuan (born 1984), Chinese actor and MediaCorp artiste based in Singapore
  • Zhang Yu (born 1988), Chinese voice actress
  • Zhang Zining (born 1996), Chinese singer, member of girl groups MERA and Rocket Girls 101

Writers
  • Zhang Chao (1600–?), Qing dynasty literature and fiction writer
  • Zhang Chengzhi (born 1948), Hui Muslim writer and author of History of the Soul
  • Zhang Dai (1597–1689), Ming dynasty writer and historian
  • Zhang Lijia (born 1964), Chinese writer and author of "Socialism is Great!"
  • Zhang Tianyi (1906–1985), Chinese left-wing writer and children's author
  • Zhang Hongliang (born 1955), Chinese Maoist writer, scholar and social commentator
  • Zhang Jialong (born 1988), Chinese journalist
  • Zhang Renxi 17th century Chinese poetical critic
  • Lifen Zhang (born 1962), British-Chinese journalist, author and broadcaster
  • Zhang Xinxin (writer) (born 1953), Chinese writer
  • Zhang Yousong (1903–1995, Chinese translator
  • Zhang Zhu (1287–1386), Chinese poet

Sports

Others

Fictional and mythological characters

Tiong

Tjong

Cheong

仉

See also

References
  1. Baxter, Wm. H. & Sagart, Laurent. "Baxter–Sagart Old Chinese Reconstruction". Archived from the original on April 25, 2012.  (1.93 MB), p. 143. 2011. Accessed 11 October 2011.
  2. 张、王、李、赵谁最多—2010年人口普查姓氏结构和分布特点. China Statistics Bureau. 23 June 2014.
  3. 最新版百家姓排行榜出炉：王姓成中国第一大姓 [Latest surname ranking: Wang is the number one surname in China]. Xinhua News Agency (in Chinese). 2013-04-15. Retrieved 2013-11-21.
  4. "Zhang Name Meaning & Zhang Family History at Ancestry.ca". www.ancestry.ca. Retrieved 2018-07-17.
  5. "What are the 10 most common last names in the world?", reference.com
  6. Xinhua. "公安部统计分析显示：王姓成为我国第一大姓." (in Chinese)
  7. People's Daily. "Chinese Surname Shortage Sparks Rethink."
  8. McFarlan, Donald. 1990 Guinness Book of World Records. Sterling Pub. Co., 2001. ISBN 189205101X.
  9. "公安部统计：'王'成中国第一大姓 有9288万人 [Public Security Bureau Statistics: 'Wang' Found China's #1 'Big Family', Includes 92.88m People]." 24 Apr 2007. Accessed 27 Mar 2012.(in Chinese)
  10. http://www.bjnews.com.cn/news/2020/01/20/676822.html
  11. 中华百家姓-千字文-国学经典-文化经典. "中国台湾姓氏排行 [Taiwan (China) Surname Ranking]". 8 Jun 2010. Accessed 1 Apr 2012. (in Chinese)
  12. http://www.bjnews.com.cn/news/2020/01/20/676822.html
  13. Statistics Singapore. "Popular Chinese Surnames in Singapore".
  14. Shah, B. R.; Chiu, M.; Amin, S.; Ramani, M.; Sadry, S.; Tu, J. V. (2010). "Surname lists to identify South Asian and Chinese ethnicity from secondary data in Ontario, Canada: A validation study". BMC Medical Research Methodology. 10: 42. doi:10.1186/1471-2288-10-42. PMC 2877682. PMID 20470433.
  15. (本聶壹之後，以避怨變姓。) Sanguozhi vol. 17.
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